Exploring the determinants of adoption of Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in India: A study based on diffusion of innovation theory

The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) platform emerged as the most advanced mobile-based payment system in the recent past that could be established to have significant value to customers and banks in India. UPI was designed to offer ubiquitous availability at all times, efficiency, ease of use, and transparency to its user. Despite these attractive features and the massive rise of internet and smartphone users, the number of UPI users has not shown significant growth as expected. To better examine the problem, it is crucial to know the factors influencing the UPI adoption, usage, and intention to recommend by the existing customers. Earlier research on UPI has mainly focused on its operations only. In this study, we have shifted focus on determinants of adoption of UPI by Indian customers based on the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory to achieve a specific result on usage and recommendation intentions. The result of the study revealed that relative advantage, complexity, and observability which are the main determinants of adoption of UPI, have a significant positive association with the intention to use of users. Further, higher intention to use and satisfaction positively correlates with the recommendation of UPI by existing users. Overall, the study model helps understand how different aspects of UPI influence the usage and recommendation intentions.